I wanted to share some of the arrangements I made for the Table & Tulip website. These lil ladies are available to order for delivery or pick-up. Since T&T has a very nice bunch to choose from already, it was a little intimidating to make "website worthy" pieces, but these guys made the cut!

The boss lady gave me pretty free range as to what I could make in these as long as they were in these vessels, and voila! I present you with the "Claudia for Table & Tulip" collection! (Okay, that's not the offical name, I'm not that important. But you get the point.)

Above is "Moody Blues"

The English Rose

Golden Girl

#pinkpineapple

These are it for now! Hopefully more to come in the future :)

If you are in the Boston area and want to order one of these, visit Table & Tulip's site and I will be so pleased to make one for you!

Oh, Helen. What can I say about Helen? Just that's she's a little piece of heaven and fuzzy warm feelings. Really, one of the nicest, sweetest people I've met and liked so much right off the bat. She's an actress, and her and her husband moved to NYC right after their honeymoon. I'm excited to see her in a play/show soon!

Anyways, she told me to do whatever I wanted with the florals, and for that I am soooo thankful because this was so much fun!!

Ill say no more and just let the pictures speak for themselves... GO! GO! GO!

No flowers here, I just feel like this picture accurately describes her ❤

Flower girl got a flower wand!

Just the squad, NBD... How amazing are these dresses?? Ignore the flowers, please, and just appreciate each individual dress.

Friends who pray together, stay BFFs forever! I just love this shot, it's so special, but I especially love the flower girl's sweet curiosity to what is happening.

Oh heyyyyyy! I just wanted to make a cameo appearance. Here I am decorating the cake :)

These were the tables, just simple and home-y. I loved the warmth and comfort of the colors.

I have been an administrative assistant at Northeastern University for about a year and a half, and though it was honestly a hard job for me in that it was hours a day sitting in front of a computer, the staff became like my second family. They were funny, kind, and so supportive. They really cheered me on as I was doing my side gigs of freelancing, pop ups and weddings. They were flexible with me and my schedule, were willing to pick up some workload and here and there to help me out, and gave me a space to be excited about what I was doing!

I had been planning on leaving this job next Summer to pursue freelancing full time as well as hopefully having a fuller wedding season to keep me busy (and financially afloat), but an opportunity came my way that was impossible to pass up!

I had been freelancing with Table and Tulip for less than a year, and a position opened up for a full time designer. I was hesitant to take it at first because I still wanted to pursue projects of my own and was worried it might be a conflict of interest thing, or I don't know, that it just wouldn't work with the hectic schedule that accompanies design studios, but to my very pleasant surprise they were willing to support me in this as well!

That being said, I don't plan to take on too much personally next season, as I want to be a big part of this shop and I don't want conflict in schedules, but for my personal growth and just pure enjoyment, I look forward to the few weddings I'll have the pleasure of working on next Summer! (I have 3 left this year that I'm really looking forward to).

Anywho, if you want something à la Claudia during the week, just put your order in through Table and Tulip and I will be SO happy to make something for you :)

I am excited to learn so much from them. I am self taught for the most part, so even though I am confident in my design skills, I'm a little iffy on the basics. It is also a studio that takes on large scale events and I'm excited to see how they handle the workload! When I was a tiny floral studio in San Diego I couldn't fathom how I could possibly grow and handle it, but I'm looking forward to learning from the best, so when I do go back to San Diego (wahhh!! Still a couple years to go...) I have a plan! I'm also looking forward to bringing my personal flair to their shop. My style is a bit different, but something they do seem to appreciate and would like to bring more of into their designs, so it feels good to bring something different to the table.

Welp, that's it! I'm SO EXCITED to do what I love as a full time job, to learn, to grow, and work with new people. But of course, any change, big or small, is always a little challenging, so any prayers and good wishes are so appreciated :) Thank you!

*sigh* Please take a moment to appreciate this little moment above caught on camera. I LOVE this picture. Great job photog extraordinaire, Lindsay Hackney!

I wanted to pop in and share some snapshots of Hannah and JP's wedding (fun fact: his name is John-Paul! Mine is a Jon Paul, but I feel like Hannah and I knew it was meant to be when we realized the men in our lives pretty much have the same name!) Though I mostly communicated with Hannah and her mom, the amazing, lovely Janet, during the planning of this wedding, I trust Hannah's taste on everything so I know JP is amazing since she chose him to spend her life with :) Anyway, back to Hannah's amazing taste - please, see invitations below that she designed, and I will need to say no more:

Okay back to a few pictures of the day...

Mmm, this photo is not really flower related... I just love it.

The table arrangements were very simple, different sized mercury vases with all white flowers and some light greens and greys.

They had an instant camera at each table for guests to have fun with and each guest got a lucky scratch card as a favor. I hope someone won some big bucks!! And then paid it forward to the bride and groom ;)

And a few little touches around the event space - the Commonwealth in Kendall Square.

I was so lucky to be a part of this wedding... truly! Wishing the newlyweds all the butterflies and "Oh my god, I can't believe we're married!" excitement in this first year. It's such a surreal and beautiful season.

Wedding season officially began (for me, at least) at the end of April, and it's been very fun and very rewarding thus far! Let me explain, in great detail (you may want to leave):

It's been one of those "you don't know how good you've got it, til it's gone..." experiences and I'm on the other side of that. I'm getting to re-live the excitement of working with flowers, using my hands and creativity, and working with brides to come up with a vision for the floral aspect of their weddings. I get to interact with people as the boss lady again, with the air of authority and confidence I lost when I became "just an admin assistant at an office." The reason I bring up the "you don't know how good you've got it..." quote is because to be completely honest, when I had my shop in San Diego, weddings were the necessary evil, it's something I had to do in order to keep my business running, so I feel like all that time I had taken the opportunity to work on weddings for granted. But now?? Now they are such a treat! Something I really look forward to!! From emails and writing proposals (fellow florists are like, "whaa??" haha) to ordering the flowers, picking them up, designing them, and then the final set up. They are all steps I have taken true joy in this time around, and I'm so thankful for the chance to experience this all over again with a new found appreciation.

During this season, I have also been freelancing A LOT so it has been pretty exhausting, but the good kind of exhausting. On weekdays I do my 8:30-4:30 job, and then I do 5-10 pm and also weekends when I'm needed. Summer is the time to hustle and save moneys!

Future Claudia, when, God willing, your career is up and going again and you're up to your knees in flowers and emails, remember how lucky you are! Keep this joy and excitement.